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Comments (6)

Susanne Rea :

22 Jul 2013 5:11:13pm

This programm bears out anecdotal evidence of my observations of Japanese friends.Marriage and cild bearing not the usual pattern. Many decent women circa 40 childless. Even though they would like children the culture and lack of government support does not encourage single parenthood. Many Young Japanese women look for partners and fathers for future children in Australia and England.

Rod :

22 Jul 2013 5:15:18pm

Come on Amanda, could we have a little more incisive interviewing please. If a person is talking about the number of births in Japan in different eras we need a comparison of populations at different times and perhaps a 'births per 1000' type figure which could also be compared to other western countries. Also perhaps the aging population will lead Japan to start an immigration program to recruit workers to keep the ageing society serviced.

andres :

Alex :

25 Jul 2013 9:06:17am

The shrinking is even greater in Spain and some other European countries.Japanese women are electing for a fun-centred lifestyle than for the sacrifices of marriage.Likewise, the men are competing for a smaller pool of possible wives and are thus withdrawing from the market.The loss of lifetime employment also conflicts with home purchase, just as it is in Australia.The homgeneity of Japanese society (98%) must vastly change as the need for 'guest workers' arrive from Thailand, Philippines, VietNam and Indonesia to serve the needs of the elderly.Already, there are over 50,000 people over 100 years old.

MGTOW4Ever :

28 Jul 2013 2:23:43am

Susanne Rea : Wow you need government incentives to have kids biggest load of crock ever.

Men get screwed by marriages its a raw deal for them. We live in a gynocentric society men are marginalized and it keeps telling men we are worthless, stupid, violent, crude, dirty, pervs. Beat any animal enough they will retreat. Women were liberated from the traditional roles in the 70's with Feminism but men were still pigeon holed into the old fashion roles. Men are finally being liberated the oppressive roles of the patriarchy. Welcome to the new world ladies you created a marxist society where men did all the labour for you and now we are just doing that labour for ourselves. Men don't need women its women that need Men. 50 Years of Feminism is quickly undoing 1000's thousand of years of survival behaviour. Men don't have a innate drive or limits like women do for wanting to have kids. Women's biological worth disappears over the age of 35. Welcome to the new age ladies where its every human for itself. We are no longer your stupid slaves.

Fergus Neilson :

01 Aug 2013 10:30:18am

I listened with interest to your program last week. And with concern. The position of your guest seemed to be that population decline was a problem with potentially drastic outcomes for Japan and Japanese society.

Perhaps we should be looking at it from a different perspective? When my father was born in 1902 the world population was 1.7 billion. When I was born in 1949 it was 2.5 billion. And today? Approaching 7.3 billion. Surely Japan and all those other countries where birthrates are dropping down towards (and below) replacement rate should be applauded and encouraged. Society will adjust (as it always does) with people choosing to work into their seventies, with mutual support communities, more automated manufacture, self guided cars and so on.

I would rather live in a world of 5 billion than one of 10 billion. I applaud Japan for heading down a path where population growth isn't seen at the only route to economic growth.